Filling in oversized plate holes, Part III

In Part II I clamped a mould into the oversized hole and filled the gap in with JB Weld.  Now it’s time to clean things up and finish the job. First I gently bonked the top of the mould with a rubber mallet to break it loose — recall that I waxed it beforehand so this wouldn’t require much force.

That done I could just twist the mould out by hand.

Next, I cleaned up the excess JB welt with a double cut bastard file.  I originally started with a finer file but found it gunked up too quickly.  Even with the bastard file I had to clean it out repeatedly with a file card.

And here’s how it looked when I was done filing:

Just for the heck of it I did a quick surface prep and sprayed on some gold leaf to prove to myself the repair would look good when I refinish the plate.

Much improved, I would say!  The dimple is from a spot where the epoxy sunk down a little too low — I’ll probably fill it in before the full refinish job, but it will be hidden underneath the washer anyway.

Thanks for reading.